One Year Bible.

Teachings about Divorce

¹Then Jesus left that place and went into the region of Judea, beyond the Jordan. Again the crowds came to Him and He taught them, as was His custom.

²Some Pharisees came to test Him. “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” they inquired.

³“What did Moses command you?” He replied.

⁴They answered, “Moses permitted a man to write his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away.”

⁵But Jesus told them, “Moses wrote this commandment for you because of your hardness of heart. ⁶However, from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ⁷‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, ⁸and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. ⁹Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”

¹⁰When they were back inside the house, the disciples asked Jesus about this matter. ¹¹So He told them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. ¹²And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.”

Jesus Blesses the Children

¹³Now people were bringing the little children to Jesus for Him to place His hands on them, and the disciples rebuked those who brought them.

¹⁴But when Jesus saw this, He was indignant and told them, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them! For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. ¹⁵Truly I tell you, anyone who does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” ¹⁶And He took the children in His arms, placed His hands on them, and blessed them.

The Rich Young Man

¹⁷As Jesus started on His way, a man ran up and knelt before Him. “Good Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

¹⁸“Why do you call Me good?” Jesus replied. “No one is good except God alone. ¹⁹You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not cheat others, honor your father and mother.’”

²⁰“Teacher,” he replied, “all these I have kept from my youth.”

²¹Jesus looked at him, loved him, and said to him, “There is one thing you lack: Go, sell everything you own and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”

²²But the man was saddened by these words and went away in sorrow, because he had great wealth.

²³Then Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”

²⁴And the disciples were amazed at His words.

But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! ²⁵It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

²⁶They were even more astonished and said to one another, “Who then can be saved?”

²⁷Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”

²⁸Peter began to say to Him, “Look, we have left everything and followed You.”

²⁹“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for My sake and for the gospel ³⁰will fail to receive a hundredfold in the present age — houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and fields, along with persecutions — and in the age to come, eternal life. ³¹But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”

The Third Prediction of the Passion

³²As they were going up the road to Jerusalem, Jesus was walking ahead of them. The disciples were amazed, but those who followed were afraid. Again Jesus took the Twelve aside and began to tell them what was going to happen to Him: ³³“Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes. They will condemn Him to death and will deliver Him over to the Gentiles, ³⁴who will mock Him and spit on Him and flog Him and kill Him. And after three days He will rise again.”

The Request of James and John

³⁵Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Jesus and declared, “Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask.”

³⁶“What do you want Me to do for you?” He inquired.

³⁷They answered, “Grant that one of us may sit at Your right hand and the other at Your left in Your glory.”

³⁸“You do not know what you are asking,” Jesus replied. “Can you drink the cup I will drink, or be baptized with the baptism I will undergo?”

³⁹“We can,” the brothers answered.

“You will drink the cup that I drink,” Jesus said, “and you will be baptized with the baptism that I undergo. ⁴⁰But to sit at My right or left is not Mine to grant. These seats belong to those for whom they have been prepared.”

⁴¹When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. ⁴²So Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their superiors exercise authority over them. ⁴³But it shall not be this way among you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, ⁴⁴and whoever wants to be first must be the slave of all. ⁴⁵For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”

Jesus Heals Bartimaeus

⁴⁶Next, they came to Jericho. And as Jesus and His disciples were leaving Jericho with a large crowd, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, was sitting beside the road. ⁴⁷When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

⁴⁸Many people admonished him to be silent, but he cried out all the louder, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

⁴⁹Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.”

So they called the blind man. “Take courage!” they said. “Get up! He is calling for you.”

⁵⁰Throwing off his cloak, Bartimaeus jumped up and came to Jesus.

⁵¹“What do you want Me to do for you?” Jesus asked.

“Rabboni,” said the blind man, “let me see again.”

⁵²“Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.

A Warning against Going to Egypt

¹Then all the commanders of the forces, along with Johanan son of Kareah, Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least to the greatest, approached ²Jeremiah the prophet and said, “May our petition come before you; pray to the LORD your God on behalf of this entire remnant. For few of us remain of the many, as you can see with your own eyes. ³Pray that the LORD your God will tell us the way we should walk and the thing we should do.”

⁴“I have heard you,” replied Jeremiah the prophet. “I will surely pray to the LORD your God as you request, and I will tell you everything that the LORD answers. I will not withhold a word from you.”

⁵Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act upon every word that the LORD your God sends you to tell us. ⁶Whether it is pleasant or unpleasant, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God to whom we are sending you, so that it may go well with us when we obey the voice of the LORD our God!”

⁷After ten days the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, ⁸and he summoned Johanan son of Kareah, all the commanders of the forces who were with him, and all the people from the least to the greatest.

⁹Jeremiah told them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your petition: ¹⁰‘If you will indeed stay in this land, then I will build you up and not tear you down; I will plant you and not uproot you, for I will relent of the disaster I have brought upon you.

¹¹Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you now fear; do not be afraid of him, declares the LORD, for I am with you to save you and deliver you from him. ¹²And I will show you compassion, and he will have compassion on you and restore you to your own land.’

¹³But if you say, ‘We will not stay in this land,’ and you thus disobey the voice of the LORD your God, ¹⁴and if you say, ‘No, but we will go to the land of Egypt and live there, where we will not see war or hear the sound of the ram’s horn or hunger for bread,’ ¹⁵then hear the word of the LORD, O remnant of Judah! This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you are determined to go to Egypt and reside there, ¹⁶then the sword you fear will overtake you there, and the famine you dread will follow on your heels into Egypt, and you will die there. ¹⁷So all who resolve to go to Egypt to reside there will die by sword and famine and plague. Not one of them will survive or escape the disaster I will bring upon them.’

¹⁸For this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘Just as My anger and wrath were poured out on the residents of Jerusalem, so will My wrath be poured out on you if you go to Egypt. You will become an object of cursing and horror, of vilification and disgrace, and you will never see this place again.’

¹⁹The LORD has told you, O remnant of Judah, ‘Do not go to Egypt.’ Know for sure that I have warned you today! ²⁰For you have deceived yourselves by sending me to the LORD your God, saying, ‘Pray to the LORD our God on our behalf, and as for all that the LORD our God says, tell it to us and we will do it.’

²¹For I have told you today, but you have not obeyed the voice of the LORD your God in all He has sent me to tell you. ²²Now therefore, know for sure that by sword and famine and plague you will die in the place where you desire to go to reside.”

Jeremiah Taken to Egypt

¹When Jeremiah had finished telling all the people all the words of the LORD their God— everything that the LORD had sent him to say— ²Azariah son of Hoshaiah, Johanan son of Kareah, and all the arrogant men said to Jeremiah, “You are lying! The LORD our God has not sent you to say, ‘You must not go to Egypt to reside there.’ ³Rather, Baruch son of Neriah is inciting you against us to deliver us into the hands of the Chaldeans, so that they may put us to death or exile us to Babylon!”

⁴So Johanan son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces disobeyed the command of the LORD to stay in the land of Judah. ⁵Instead, Johanan son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces took the whole remnant of Judah, those who had returned to the land of Judah from all the nations to which they had been scattered, ⁶the men, the women, the children, the king’s daughters, and everyone whom Nebuzaradan captain of the guard had allowed to remain with Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, as well as Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch son of Neriah.

⁷So they entered the land of Egypt because they did not obey the voice of the LORD, and they went as far as Tahpanhes.

⁸Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah at Tahpanhes: ⁹“In the sight of the Jews, pick up some large stones and bury them in the clay of the brick pavement at the entrance to Pharaoh’s palace at Tahpanhes.

¹⁰Then tell them that this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘I will send for My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and I will set his throne over these stones that I have embedded, and he will spread his royal pavilion over them. ¹¹He will come and strike down the land of Egypt, bringing death to those destined for death, captivity to those destined for captivity, and the sword to those destined for the sword.

¹²I will kindle a fire in the temples of the gods of Egypt, and Nebuchadnezzar will burn those temples and take their gods as captives. So he will wrap himself with the land of Egypt as a shepherd wraps himself in his garment, and he will depart from there unscathed. ¹³He will demolish the sacred pillars of the temple of the sun in the land of Egypt, and he will burn down the temples of the gods of Egypt.’”

Judgment on the Jews in Egypt

¹This is the word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews living in the land of Egypt— in Migdol, Tahpanhes, and Memphis— and in the land of Pathros: ²“This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: You have seen all the disaster that I brought against Jerusalem and all the cities of Judah; and behold, they lie today in ruins and desolation ³because of the evil they have done.

They provoked Me to anger by continuing to burn incense and to serve other gods that neither they nor you nor your fathers ever knew. ⁴Yet I sent you all My servants the prophets again and again, saying: ‘Do not do this detestable thing that I hate.’

⁵But they did not listen or incline their ears; they did not turn from their wickedness or stop burning incense to other gods. ⁶Therefore My wrath and anger poured out and burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, so that they have become the desolate ruin they are today.

⁷So now, this is what the LORD God of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Why are you doing such great harm to yourselves by cutting off from Judah man and woman, child and infant, leaving yourselves without a remnant? ⁸Why are you provoking Me to anger by the work of your hands by burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt, where you have gone to reside?

As a result, you will be cut off and will become an object of cursing and reproach among all the nations of the earth. ⁹Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers and of the kings of Judah and their wives, as well as the wickedness that you and your wives committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁰To this day they have not humbled themselves or shown reverence, nor have they followed My instruction or the statutes that I set before you and your fathers.

¹¹Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: I will set My face to bring disaster and to cut off all Judah. ¹²And I will take away the remnant of Judah who have resolved to go to the land of Egypt to reside there; they will meet their end. They will all fall by the sword or be consumed by famine. From the least to the greatest, they will die by sword or famine; and they will become an object of cursing and horror, of vilification and reproach.

¹³I will punish those who live in the land of Egypt, just as I punished Jerusalem, by sword and famine and plague, ¹⁴so that none of the remnant of Judah who have gone to reside in Egypt will escape or survive to return to the land of Judah, where they long to return and live; for none will return except a few fugitives.”

The Stubbornness of the People

¹⁵Then all the men who knew that their wives were burning incense to other gods, and all the women standing by— a great assembly— along with all the people living in the land of Egypt and in Pathros, said to Jeremiah, ¹⁶“As for the word you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we will not listen to you! ¹⁷Instead, we will do everything we vowed to do: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and offer drink offerings to her, just as we, our fathers, our kings, and our officials did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem.

At that time we had plenty of food and good things, and we saw no disaster. ¹⁸But from the time we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been perishing by sword and famine.”

¹⁹“Moreover,” said the women, “when we burned incense to the Queen of Heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, was it without our husbands’ knowledge that we made sacrificial cakes in her image and poured out drink offerings to her?”

Calamity for the Jews

²⁰Then Jeremiah said to all the people, both men and women, who were answering him, ²¹“As for the incense you burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem— you, your fathers, your kings, your officials, and the people of the land— did the LORD not remember and bring this to mind? ²²So the LORD could no longer endure the evil deeds and detestable acts you committed, and your land became a desolation, a horror, and an object of cursing, without inhabitant, as it is this day. ²³Because you burned incense and sinned against the LORD and did not obey the voice of the LORD or walk in His instruction, His statutes, and His testimonies, this disaster has befallen you, as you see today.”

²⁴Then Jeremiah said to all the people, including all the women, “Hear the word of the LORD, all those of Judah who are in the land of Egypt. ²⁵This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: As for you and your wives, you have spoken with your mouths and fulfilled with your hands your words: ‘We will surely perform our vows that we have made to burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and to pour out drink offerings to her.’ Go ahead, then, do what you have promised! Keep your vows!

²⁶Nevertheless, hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah living in Egypt: Behold, I have sworn by My great name, says the LORD, that never again will any man of Judah living in the land of Egypt invoke My name or say, ‘As surely as the Lord GOD lives.’

²⁷I am watching over them for harm and not for good, and every man of Judah who is in the land of Egypt will meet his end by sword or famine, until they are finished off.

²⁸Those who escape the sword will return from Egypt to Judah, few in number, and the whole remnant of Judah who went to dwell in the land of Egypt will know whose word will stand, Mine or theirs!

²⁹This will be a sign to you that I will punish you in this place, declares the LORD, so that you may know that My threats of harm against you will surely stand. ³⁰This is what the LORD says: Behold, I will deliver Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hands of his enemies who seek his life, just as I delivered Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the enemy who was seeking his life.”